Defending Rights Law Center

HUGE REVERSAL ON APPEAL!!! 3 months after DMV wrongfully suspended our client’s license, we won on an Internal Appeal, which is a minor miracle as another DMV employee reviews the evidence and rarely overturns their own. This was a one year suspension as our client was charged with a 3rd offense DUI with a .20% Blood Alcohol Concentration...the DMV could not establish a time of driving based on the evidence we presented. Although our client was wrongfully suspended for 3 months, in the end DMV got it right!

Another incredible result for our client!!! This was a Checkpoint in Downtown San Diego where our client was unlawfully detained and unlawfully arrested before blowing a .10%/.10% breath alcohol level. DMV agreed and set aside the license suspension!!

Two hard fought gems from DMV this week!! Two DUI cases set aside meaning no license suspensions for our clients. The first case our client was asleep behind the wheel blocking a traffic lane. He was arrested for suspicion of DUI and blew a .12/.11% breath alcohol level at the station. After we had his DUI charges dismissed in court we still had to battle the DMV and after multiple hearings and witnesses, DMV decided to set aside the license suspension based on our present...ation of evidence or lack thereof! The second DMV win involved a bad traffic collision and thankfully no one was hurt! Our client was arrested for suspicion of DUI and submitted to a blood test which revealed an alleged .19% blood alcohol level. After digging into all the evidence and cross examining witnesses, we were able to show that the suspension was not justified and they set aside the license suspension!

And we pulled off another amazing victory for an amazing Veteran of our armed forces!! This was a .13% BAC with a pretty bad collision 2 years ago! Fortunately no one was hurt. We were able to get his court case completely dismissed after about a year and a half. We had to battle DMV for 2 years and then ended up with this beauty below in the mail. So thankful for this victory as it often times goes the other way after such a long battle. We are very happy for this very deserving client to be able to finally move on from this!

Josh Price breaks down this impossible Not Guilty verdict on a DUI using the GERDs defense. Monday 10:30am PDT https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tmliGHIFRu-nQhsO4Cd2PQ

A great way to end the week! DMV set aside the license suspension of an alleged .25/.23% breath alcohol level after we presented evidence showing that there was insufficient foundation for those results. It is rare to get such a result as the mountain was steep and rugged in this case. Our client is beyond happy that he can continue to work and put this incident behind him.

License saved!!! This was another close call case where our client blew a .08/.08%, however once we dug into the maintenance done on the breath instrument she blew into found that it was reading high. Her true readings should have fallen into the .07% range....the number's are not always what they appear to be and luckily we found that out after almost a year of battling through various expert testimony, officer testimony and getting all of the discovery we wanted. DMV did the right thing and set aside the license suspension. We also had her DUI charge dismissed in Court and now she can finally move on with her life!

Article on some intersections society faces between COVID19, Constitutional Rights, and the law. http://www.defendingrights.com/2020/05/01/crimpro/

Another huge victory for our client and driver's license saved....no license suspension at all! Our client was pulled over for weaving after 2:00am and ultimately blew a .098%/.085% on a portable breath test device before being arrested for suspicion of DUI. He blew into an evidential breath machine .089% and .087%. We were able to show that the true range of his alcohol level was really between a .079% and a .096% and he could have been anywhere on that scale. Based on m...ultiple hearings with two different expert witnesses and over a year later, DMV had no choice but to set our client's suspension aside! Let's rephrase that, DMV always has a choice and can still screw people over on even these close call cases. That is why it is so important to set it up right and to have a DMV Hearing Officer willing to listen to the evidence carefully and issue a thoughtful decision. We were also able to get his DUI charges dismissed in Court so this was the last hurdle to keep his license. Great result and another license saved for our client! See more

Just received this gem in the mail from DMV: .17% blood alcohol level that does not matter if the traffic stop is unlawful. We subpoenaed the 28 year veteran Lieutenant who was a stand up guy and testified truthfully which uncovered that he really did not have a lawful reason for stopping our client. Fortunately we had a police officer that told the truth and a DMV Hearing Officer that was able to apply the law to the facts in this case and did the only thing they could do, find that the stop was unlawful, thus the arrest was unlawful and they gave our client his license back. Congratulations to our client and for one of the few times Justice is recognized in this arena.

Another Commercial License saved!!! After getting both DUI charges dismissed in court, we knew we had a long road ahead in fighting the DMV where our client was still facing a one year suspension on his Commercial license if we lost. We fought like hell and ended up succeeding in winning the hearing! So no loss of any type of driving privilege, no SR-22, and our client finally gets to move on with his life a year after he was arrested for suspicion of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol. Great result for a terrific client!

An absolute dog fight during Quarantine and most dog fights with DMV you end up in 2nd place, but not this one, thankfully. The Court case was dismissed after we had a .14% BAC tossed out of evidence after a Judge granted our motion to suppress evidence. Then we spent the next 8 months battling DMV with multiple witnesses. We uncovered an issue through a subpoena for lab records that tested the blood and found out that our client's blood sat on the machine overnight before it was tested among other issues that we were able to use to prevail on. So no conviction and no DMV Suspension. A huge victory for a very well deserving client and we are happy to assist him keeping his otherwise clean slate, CLEAN!

In the same vein of staying productive during COVID-19 crisis, another hard fought victory at DMV resulting in a win and giving our client the ability to drive!

Staying productive despite quarantine...this was one hell of a battle. It was a .18/.18 breath test on an Intoxilyzer 8000 with a bad accident. Our client is ...a service member and has served our country proudly for over 6 years. Let’s just say he had A LOT on the line here. We had his criminal case, both counts of DUI, COMPLETELY DISMISSED. We fought with DMV for over 1 1/2 years and over 4 hearings with 4 different witnesses, experts, you name it! We were able to wrap the final hearing up with a final expert witness over the phone due to COVID-19 (could not be done in person as try to do all of f our hearings) and just got the great news that we WON! No conviction, no license suspension and after a year and a half of fighting, we emerged victorious for a very deserving client. Thank you for your service and we are proud and thankful you chose our firm and happy we were able to deliver for you! See more

Huge victory for our client who works for Department of Defense and had his job on the line. He was allegedly a .13% blood alcohol level when driving through a DUI checkpoint in Pacific Beach. We were able to get his DUI charges dismissed after a long battle in court and this DMV victory was the icing on the cake for him. Able to keep his job and continue to be a productive member of society!

A few recent positive DMV Administrative Per Se hearing results...a .11%, a .12%, and a .14% blood alcohol level all set aside by DMV after some hard fought battles. We have 3 more very happy client’s who get to keep their driving privileges and continue to earn a living and tend to family and life matters. We are happy DMV did the right thing in these cases!

A nice way to start the week with great news out of the DMV. After almost a year of fighting them on an alleged refusal for our client where he was facing a one year hard suspension of his license...WE WON! No one year loss of license and a very happy client. Thank goodness for video evidence as it saved our client. The officer swore under penalty of perjury TWICE that he read our client what he was required by law to read him; then low and behold, we play the video and only then does he admit that he might not of read what he was supposed to! Unbelievable and luckily we had a really good DMV Hearing Officer who did the right thing.